After centuries of changing .. some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

(From the Minneapolis Red Star)
"Then, in the 1960s, "black" came back — as an expression of pride, a strategy to defy oppression.
"Every time black had been mentioned since slavery, it was bad," says Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Reclaiming the word "was a grass-roots move, and it was oppositional. It was like,`In your face.'"
Afro-American was briefly in vogue in the 1970s, and lingers today in the names of some newspapers and university departments. But it was soon overshadowed by African-American, which first sprouted among the black intelligentsia.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is widely credited with taking African-American mainstream in 1988, before his second presidential run.
Berry remembers being at a 1988 gathering of civil rights groups organized by Jackson in Chicago when Ramona Edelin, then president of the National Urban Coalition, urged those assembled to declare that black people should be called African-American.
Edelin says today that there was no intent to exclude people born in other countries, or to eliminate the use of black: "It was an attempt to start a cultural offensive, because we were clearly at that time always on the defensive."
"We said, this is kind of a compromise term," she continued. "There are those among us who don't want to be referred to as African. And there also those among us who don't want to be referred to as American. This was a way of bridging divisions among us or in our ideologies so we can move forward as a group."
How about "American Negroe"....Akin to "White Anglo Sexton Protestant"
We have more in commom than the ignorant Race Baiters that dominate the Demokrat Party of Amerika Today!

Yes, up here I see many "Norwegians on Board" bumper stickers, even thought i know the people are fourth generation Minnesotans...

Time to assimilate and become just americans, right?

woodtick57 wrote:

Yes, up here I see many "Norwegians on Board" bumper stickers, even thought i know the people are fourth generation Minnesotans...
Time to assimilate and become just americans, right?

I am certain that you have a point...What may your point be?

Consistent wrote:

<quoted text>
I am certain that you have a point...What may your point be?

Lots of people are proud of their heritage and the culture they came from.

Most third graders would have figured that out.

Consistent wrote:

(From the Minneapolis Red Star)
There are those among us who don't want to be referred to as African. And there also those among us who don't want to be referred to as American.

Don't want to be referred to as American? Then you can certainly go back to wherever you think you might have come from.

woodtick57 wrote:

<quoted text>Lots of people are proud of their heritage and the culture they came from.
Most third graders would have figured that out.

My heritage is that of an American.....as defined by the Constitution of the United States....I never felt any ned to be subdivided for the purpose of "Oficial Victim Status".

woodtick57 wrote:

Yes, up here I see many "Norwegians on Board" bumper stickers, even thought i know the people are fourth generation Minnesotans...
Time to assimilate and become just americans, right?

so you have heard people saying im norweigen-american? There is a difference in being proud of your heritage and one that wants to be grouped by race.

Consistent wrote:

<quoted text>
My heritage is that of an American.....as defined by the Constitution of the United States....I never felt any ned to be subdivided for the purpose of "Oficial Victim Status".

do you think lesser of your fellow citizens that are proud of their ancestors heritage and try to keep some of their culture alive in their family? Like making lefse and eating lutefisk. Or celebrating St. Patricks day? Or having an Oktoberfest shindig?

woodtick57 wrote:

<quoted text>do you think lesser of your fellow citizens that are proud of their ancestors heritage and try to keep some of their culture alive in their family? Like making lefse and eating lutefisk. Or celebrating St. Patricks day? Or having an Oktoberfest shindig?

most likely he is afraid to find out about his ancestors. what they might have done. or where they came from. and why they came here.
for me, IMHO, you can not go forward untill you know where you came from. be it personally and or family wise. since in many ways. what your ancestors did. to a very small degree affects you.
since in many ways, they are to a degree responsible for one's work ethic.

woodtick57 wrote:

<quoted text>do you think lesser of your fellow citizens that are proud of their ancestors heritage and try to keep some of their culture alive in their family? Like making lefse and eating lutefisk. Or celebrating St. Patricks day? Or having an Oktoberfest shindig?

Commrade Woodrow,

I am all for all kinds of celebrations of all the cultures that created America.

I am not for confering "Victim Status" on anybody via the law, or via a Bastardisation of the American Culture....and I apply this to all Americans regardless of race, creed, or culture.

Your question is ignorant, a projection, and defensive all in one....Good Job!

Gee, without your pals accepting your victim status, you're a food stamp needing, booze swilling drunk... Oops !

If you see yourself, or others, as some kind of Color, then you are just another part of the problem.

Solve for X wrote:

If you see yourself, or others, as some kind of Color, then you are just another part of the problem.

Just a LOT racist, huh ?

Sangelia wrote:

<quoted text>
most likely he is afraid to find out about his ancestors. what they might have done. or where they came from. and why they came here.
for me, IMHO, you can not go forward untill you know where you came from. be it personally and or family wise. since in many ways. what your ancestors did. to a very small degree affects you.
since in many ways, they are to a degree responsible for one's work ethic.

this is one of the reasons my husband and I've been working on my daughter's family tree at Ancestry dot com. gathering information about both our families to give her knowledge of her history.
kinda jealous of my husband's side. he has traced his to at least 1605.

woodtick57 wrote:

<quoted text>Lots of people are proud of their heritage and the culture they came from.
Most third graders would have figured that out.

My Bad, I should have known that your point was a Woodism.....

Stating the obvious.

Something most 3rd Graders do too when they want attention.

Consistent wrote:

<quoted text>
My Bad, I should have known that your point was a Woodism.....
Stating the obvious.
Something most 3rd Graders do too when they want attention.

correct. most folks I would have to say do NOT want your hope of "The Machine Stops" world to come true.

woodtick57 wrote:

<quoted text>do you think lesser of your fellow citizens that are proud of their ancestors heritage and try to keep some of their culture alive in their family? Like making lefse and eating lutefisk. Or celebrating St. Patricks day? Or having an Oktoberfest shindig?

I think lesser of anyone who can choke down lutefisk with a smile on their face.

Blern wrote:

<quoted text>
Don't want to be referred to as American? Then you can certainly go back to wherever you think you might have come from.

How can I go back to Italy, Norway, Sweden and Ireland?

And why would I want to?

The USA is a free Country with the right to free speach and well I'm sure there are some additional freedoms still out there.

I have worked with many blacks who live the "Good Life".

Many have worked their way out of slavery but there still many remaining on Welfare being a slave to Government.

If you have ever been on unemployment and have had to begg for payment from some arse hole state employee you know what I mean.

I was unemployed after discharge from the Army during the 'Nam war there were NO JOBS available but unemployment jerks still made it insane to collect unemployment. I finally got a 3rd shift job in a wharehouse to make ends meet.

Dont generalize wrote:

I have worked with many blacks who live the "Good Life".
Many have worked their way out of slavery but there still many remaining on Welfare being a slave to Government.
If you have ever been on unemployment and have had to begg for payment from some arse hole state employee you know what I mean.
I was unemployed after discharge from the Army during the 'Nam war there were NO JOBS available but unemployment jerks still made it insane to collect unemployment. I finally got a 3rd shift job in a wharehouse to make ends meet.

You better hope the Seattle Scourge does not read your post.

I explained to another poster one day how I too had to get Food Stamps upon discharge from the corp for 1 month....The Seatlle Psyco has distorted it, and has chased me around this site for 6 months replying in her own distorted fashion to every legitimate post I create.

Taking it futher, she homed in a post I wrote to another poster about the death of my nephew in 2011 in Kandahar...and she really had Ammo to attack me with her distorted creartions based on my post.

She is TOTALLY dependent on the State to keep her illness in check at the Institution, and fears that she will be booted if the Messiah is defeated this year....Be advised.